As we were reading Jacob's Room, I became even more curious about the title of this book. Throughout the book we take a glimpse into some of the many rooms that Jacob has had throughout part of his life. Sometimes there was great detail abou the room, while at other times it was only mentioned. My question is, why is this book titled Jacob's Room? Why not Jacob's Rooms? And what is the exact significance of each of these rooms? In the last chapter we read how Jacob's room looked when Bonamy came over. Everything was strewn around the room. Why is the room so significant?
Does anyone have any ideas of why Jacob's room deserved the title of the book? Was there any particular room that deserved the title? - szd-c Jan 27, 2008
I think that the title of the book comes from the fact that the descriptions of Jacob’s rooms are one thing that shows up consistently throughout the book. These descriptions may tell us something about Jacob or his life. These descriptions show up at different times in his life. Maybe we can find out something about his life through the descriptions (or lack of descriptions) and conditions of his rooms. I think that the title is Jacobs' Room not Jacob's Rooms because although he had many rooms he only had one at a time. We can learn something about Jacob at a certain time through the described room at that point in his life. To me this was one thing that brought some of the breaks in time and space together. I am not sure that we can consider one room more significant that another. Is one more important than the others? Are these rooms the point of the novel? Are they important enough to deserve the title? - bga-c Jan 27, 2008
I find it interesting that you mention that the rooms were one of the most consistent details throughout the book. Everyday my class has, I guess you can say, complained about the bouncing back and forth from character to character. We rarely read a clear, consistent story about some of the characters. We have learned that Virginia Woolf intended this book to be read in this way. Nothing is ever clear and consistent, we always bounce around from person to person, thought to thought. However, perhaps in this bouncing around from person to person we can find something consistent: Jacob's rooms. This is the one concept that we can count of for consistency.
Does anyone else see it this way? Could this book be titled Jacob's Room because that is the one concept that we see throughout the whole book. Though the room itself may change, Jacob still has a room.
Or do you think there was a specific room that had more importance than another? - szd-c Jan 27, 2008
Bga, I think you make a good point. Jacob's room(s) is a constant throughout this book, although the room is not always the same. Through Woolf's descriptions of the rooms, we can see how Jacob has grown throughout the book. What do each of his rooms tell us about Jacob?
However, I am confused as to why this is the title of the book... I think that the rooms do tell us about Jacob, but I don't feel that they are the most important part of the book, do you guys? We learn about Jacob in other ways as well: through the perspectives of others, his relationships with others, and his actions. SZd, I think that your reasoning does make sense: throughout the book, the rooms are a constant. Maybe that is the important part. The rooms are crucial because they not only tell us about Jacob, but they show us how he has changed throughout the story. - Kho-c Jan 28, 2008
I think as well that Jacob's room has been constant, but in a different way that you guys have stated. As I mentioned before in a topic that Bro Tom locked, I believe that Jacob's "rooms" have been places at which he attempts to find solace. But every time, although we do not know this until the end, he fails every time. He is still immersed in conflict. The "room" to which the title refers is also to be a place of comfort and peace, but this particular one is the true "room" in which Jacob can be at peace. Thus he has run away (no, he hasn't died, see my post in the Ch. 14 topic). He has gone off to find this "room." Will he find it? What is it? We don't know. Perhaps we never will. - JHe-c Jan 28, 2008
I think this title has something to do with Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own.” In that essay she basically argued that women were not given the chance to become the best writers they could because they never got a room of their own. Maybe the title reflects the concept of what a room provides. A room, according to Woolf, should be quiet, a place of comfort, and a place for thinking. Rooms should be a great place to solve internal conflict. As Jhe has pointed out, the rooms in which Jacob has lived in has failed him. He is not able to get over his internal conflict. He can’t settle down, he can’t choose a girl, and he ends up either dead in the war or running away from home, which ever way you want to take it the end is really the same. The room has failed Jacob when it was supposed to be a great place of comfort and a place of solace. Maybe that’s why Woolf entitled the book like she did. It highlights the failures of Jacob’s life and the rooms that he has had. But that’s just an alternative to all the thoughts of the rooms being a “constant theme throughout the book” which is an argument that definitely makes sense. - kli-c Jan 29, 2008
I think that the Jacob's Room is not a place. It is not a physical world, but rather, a metaphysical place. A place of fleeting thoughts, emotions, situations and beauty. The room that Virginia Woolf writes about is Jacob's, not because he lives in it, but because it contains his thoughts. Like I discussed in another post of mine, Woolf can not possibly contain all of his thoughts, but she does convey the fact that thoughts are fleeting. Through the exploration of Jacob's thoughts, the complexity of one's mind is evident. I believe that Jacob's room is his mind, and Woolf conveys how fleeting that mind really is. A person's mind is organized yes, like maybe the pages of her book are organized, but one's thoughts, like the scenes in this book are confusing as all hell. In conclusion, I believe Jacob's Room to be his mind, as best conveyed within the pages of this book. NOT contained, but conveyed. - cdu-c Jan 29, 2008
I am with Bga-c for this one. The visits to the room did help connect the spaces; we were taken along with Jacob and swept into the lives of the people he met, but always we could come to one of his rooms where there was no confusion. The rooms also definitely indicate to the readers certain details or happenings of Jacob's life. One such time was with the description of the sheep skulls, signifying death. Another was when his room was left as though he did not plan to leave forever. He figured he would return after going to war, as many do, but life is surprising and unpredictable. Without these descriptions, we would lose foreshadowing, and we would not be able to understand how Jacob died. - Sha-c Jan 31, 2008
In my opinion, the title of the book was based completely off of Chapter 14. The fact of the matter is that he died in the war despite the entire book that documented the goings-on of his life. The fact that the room was left as if he'd come back shows how his life was just cut short, and thus sums up what happened to the character in the book. The state of Jacob's Room is a symbol for what Virginia Woolf wrote throughout the book. I don't think that it was about every exact room he ever lived in, or why he lived in those spaces, or who visited him in them. It was all about what was portrayed in Chapter 14 in his final Room.- NVa-c Jan 31, 2008
I was also thinking about this the other day. I think that it's hard to say whether the title of the book should be "Jacob's Room" vs. "Jacob's Rooms." We come across rooms several times, many in which significant events occurred. I think that many of these events were turning points in the various plots of the book. When Jacob is with Florinda, when he's thinking about the scientific aspects of life, when he's eating dinner with Timmy's family. All these points are significant in Jacob's life, which made me think that the title of the book was not directly referring to Jacob's own room. I also disagree with NVa because of those significant points in Jacob's journey through life. Chapter 14 certainly was one of those moments, but not the most significant. It didn't really conclude the book, nor did it sum up Jacob's other experiences.- bzw-c Feb 1, 2008
I believe I may have made this point in another part of the forum, but I think it's called Jacob's Room because never see more about Jacob's character than we do when we hear about his rooms and the state of them. It always seems that his rooms are unkempt, there are letters to be answered and things to be cleaned, but they never get done. His rooms are very uncertain in that they are not organized. Perhaps Woolf was just trying to suggest that we could learn more about Jacob himself by studying the rooms that we heard about in the novel. He is an uncertain human being in that he has a lot of trouble deciding what he wants out of life, who wants to be with, and where he wants to go in the future. His rooms would suggest that the person living in them are exactly like that. I think NVa is making a lot of sense when he mentions that his life was "cut short", as was indicated by the fact that his room was left so unkempt and unorganized. He didn't know where he wanted to go, and because of the war, he didn't have time to figure it out, so it was left completely as it was. - MRo-c Feb 1, 2008
Many of you have indicated that the title does not make sense because the room is not central enough to the story. Sometimes an author chooses a title not because it is the focus of the book but rather so the reader will pay attention to the story. If the story had had another title, would we even pay attention to the rooms? And the rooms are important, because they tell us something about Jacob each time we see him. For instance "cards from societies with little raised crescents..." tell us that he is blessed with good contacts. "There were books enough; very few French books..." tells us not only that he is an avid reader, but that he does not have a taste for French (for romantic literature, possibly). "His slippers were incredibly shabby, like boats burnt to the water's rim," which explains that he enjoys comfort and spends lots of time relaxing at home. The things in his room tell us exactly what he likes and what kind of person he is. Would we notice these details if Virginia did not show them to us?
And Jacob's rooms are not the only ones that are worth noticing. The physical location of many other characters adds to their personality. The Plumers keep "serious six-penny weeklies written by pale men in muddy boots" (24). We can deduce from this that the Plumers want to be up to date with the current fashions, but their tastes are not worth much. The parrot's cage on page 80 is very indicative of the middle-aged ladies at Miss Perry's house. Parrots can talk, but they do not have much to say. The point is that all of these details tell us something about the characters. This is something that is true about society anyway, and it is a good tool for adding emphasis to the traits of the character that is introduced. - TRu-c Feb 1, 2008
The title goes right along with the style of the book, and everything described from the first chapter to the last. Jacob's room is the closest we really get to the inside of his head, and hearing the thoughts that bounce around inside his mind. Other novels might say "James became suddenly frightened; the sight of the stranger caused his calm breath to speed into the rythme of the machine next to him. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure that... blah" The thing is, Jacob's room(s) allow us to see even deeper than this description, which is probably why Woolfe was fond of this style. In a sense, narration is shallow, and typically only penetrates the most prime, high, or instinctual parts of ones senses and thoughts. Getting into Jacob's Room, into his mind, allowed us to basically walk around in his personality and his character, and by hearing about his room, we can explore the mind of the owner.
Jacob's Room the novel is dedicated to Woolfe's unique style, and the room is a great part of her technique, thus it is fitting to name the novel after it. And true, Jacob has but one real room at a time, just as he only has one mind and one self to explore. - AZU-C Feb 2, 2008
Does anyone have any ideas of why Jacob's room deserved the title of the book? Was there any particular room that deserved the title?
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I think that the title of the book comes from the fact that the descriptions of Jacob’s rooms are one thing that shows up consistently throughout the book. These descriptions may tell us something about Jacob or his life. These descriptions show up at different times in his life. Maybe we can find out something about his life through the descriptions (or lack of descriptions) and conditions of his rooms. I think that the title is Jacobs' Room not Jacob's Rooms because although he had many rooms he only had one at a time. We can learn something about Jacob at a certain time through the described room at that point in his life. To me this was one thing that brought some of the breaks in time and space together. I am not sure that we can consider one room more significant that another. Is one more important than the others? Are these rooms the point of the novel? Are they important enough to deserve the title? -
I find it interesting that you mention that the rooms were one of the most consistent details throughout the book. Everyday my class has, I guess you can say, complained about the bouncing back and forth from character to character. We rarely read a clear, consistent story about some of the characters. We have learned that Virginia Woolf intended this book to be read in this way. Nothing is ever clear and consistent, we always bounce around from person to person, thought to thought. However, perhaps in this bouncing around from person to person we can find something consistent: Jacob's rooms. This is the one concept that we can count of for consistency.
Does anyone else see it this way? Could this book be titled Jacob's Room because that is the one concept that we see throughout the whole book. Though the room itself may change, Jacob still has a room.
Or do you think there was a specific room that had more importance than another?
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Bga, I think you make a good point. Jacob's room(s) is a constant throughout this book, although the room is not always the same. Through Woolf's descriptions of the rooms, we can see how Jacob has grown throughout the book. What do each of his rooms tell us about Jacob?
However, I am confused as to why this is the title of the book... I think that the rooms do tell us about Jacob, but I don't feel that they are the most important part of the book, do you guys? We learn about Jacob in other ways as well: through the perspectives of others, his relationships with others, and his actions. SZd, I think that your reasoning does make sense: throughout the book, the rooms are a constant. Maybe that is the important part. The rooms are crucial because they not only tell us about Jacob, but they show us how he has changed throughout the story. -
I think as well that Jacob's room has been constant, but in a different way that you guys have stated. As I mentioned before in a topic that Bro Tom locked, I believe that Jacob's "rooms" have been places at which he attempts to find solace. But every time, although we do not know this until the end, he fails every time. He is still immersed in conflict. The "room" to which the title refers is also to be a place of comfort and peace, but this particular one is the true "room" in which Jacob can be at peace. Thus he has run away (no, he hasn't died, see my post in the Ch. 14 topic). He has gone off to find this "room." Will he find it? What is it? We don't know. Perhaps we never will. -
I think this title has something to do with Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own.” In that essay she basically argued that women were not given the chance to become the best writers they could because they never got a room of their own. Maybe the title reflects the concept of what a room provides. A room, according to Woolf, should be quiet, a place of comfort, and a place for thinking. Rooms should be a great place to solve internal conflict. As Jhe has pointed out, the rooms in which Jacob has lived in has failed him. He is not able to get over his internal conflict. He can’t settle down, he can’t choose a girl, and he ends up either dead in the war or running away from home, which ever way you want to take it the end is really the same. The room has failed Jacob when it was supposed to be a great place of comfort and a place of solace. Maybe that’s why Woolf entitled the book like she did. It highlights the failures of Jacob’s life and the rooms that he has had. But that’s just an alternative to all the thoughts of the rooms being a “constant theme throughout the book” which is an argument that definitely makes sense.
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I think that the Jacob's Room is not a place. It is not a physical world, but rather, a metaphysical place. A place of fleeting thoughts, emotions, situations and beauty. The room that Virginia Woolf writes about is Jacob's, not because he lives in it, but because it contains his thoughts. Like I discussed in another post of mine, Woolf can not possibly contain all of his thoughts, but she does convey the fact that thoughts are fleeting. Through the exploration of Jacob's thoughts, the complexity of one's mind is evident. I believe that Jacob's room is his mind, and Woolf conveys how fleeting that mind really is. A person's mind is organized yes, like maybe the pages of her book are organized, but one's thoughts, like the scenes in this book are confusing as all hell. In conclusion, I believe Jacob's Room to be his mind, as best conveyed within the pages of this book. NOT contained, but conveyed.
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I am with Bga-c for this one. The visits to the room did help connect the spaces; we were taken along with Jacob and swept into the lives of the people he met, but always we could come to one of his rooms where there was no confusion. The rooms also definitely indicate to the readers certain details or happenings of Jacob's life. One such time was with the description of the sheep skulls, signifying death. Another was when his room was left as though he did not plan to leave forever. He figured he would return after going to war, as many do, but life is surprising and unpredictable. Without these descriptions, we would lose foreshadowing, and we would not be able to understand how Jacob died. -
In my opinion, the title of the book was based completely off of Chapter 14. The fact of the matter is that he died in the war despite the entire book that documented the goings-on of his life. The fact that the room was left as if he'd come back shows how his life was just cut short, and thus sums up what happened to the character in the book. The state of Jacob's Room is a symbol for what Virginia Woolf wrote throughout the book. I don't think that it was about every exact room he ever lived in, or why he lived in those spaces, or who visited him in them. It was all about what was portrayed in Chapter 14 in his final Room.-
I was also thinking about this the other day. I think that it's hard to say whether the title of the book should be "Jacob's Room" vs. "Jacob's Rooms." We come across rooms several times, many in which significant events occurred. I think that many of these events were turning points in the various plots of the book. When Jacob is with Florinda, when he's thinking about the scientific aspects of life, when he's eating dinner with Timmy's family. All these points are significant in Jacob's life, which made me think that the title of the book was not directly referring to Jacob's own room. I also disagree with NVa because of those significant points in Jacob's journey through life. Chapter 14 certainly was one of those moments, but not the most significant. It didn't really conclude the book, nor did it sum up Jacob's other experiences.-
I believe I may have made this point in another part of the forum, but I think it's called Jacob's Room because never see more about Jacob's character than we do when we hear about his rooms and the state of them. It always seems that his rooms are unkempt, there are letters to be answered and things to be cleaned, but they never get done. His rooms are very uncertain in that they are not organized. Perhaps Woolf was just trying to suggest that we could learn more about Jacob himself by studying the rooms that we heard about in the novel. He is an uncertain human being in that he has a lot of trouble deciding what he wants out of life, who wants to be with, and where he wants to go in the future. His rooms would suggest that the person living in them are exactly like that. I think NVa is making a lot of sense when he mentions that his life was "cut short", as was indicated by the fact that his room was left so unkempt and unorganized. He didn't know where he wanted to go, and because of the war, he didn't have time to figure it out, so it was left completely as it was.
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Many of you have indicated that the title does not make sense because the room is not central enough to the story. Sometimes an author chooses a title not because it is the focus of the book but rather so the reader will pay attention to the story. If the story had had another title, would we even pay attention to the rooms? And the rooms are important, because they tell us something about Jacob each time we see him. For instance "cards from societies with little raised crescents..." tell us that he is blessed with good contacts. "There were books enough; very few French books..." tells us not only that he is an avid reader, but that he does not have a taste for French (for romantic literature, possibly). "His slippers were incredibly shabby, like boats burnt to the water's rim," which explains that he enjoys comfort and spends lots of time relaxing at home. The things in his room tell us exactly what he likes and what kind of person he is. Would we notice these details if Virginia did not show them to us?
And Jacob's rooms are not the only ones that are worth noticing. The physical location of many other characters adds to their personality. The Plumers keep "serious six-penny weeklies written by pale men in muddy boots" (24). We can deduce from this that the Plumers want to be up to date with the current fashions, but their tastes are not worth much. The parrot's cage on page 80 is very indicative of the middle-aged ladies at Miss Perry's house. Parrots can talk, but they do not have much to say. The point is that all of these details tell us something about the characters. This is something that is true about society anyway, and it is a good tool for adding emphasis to the traits of the character that is introduced. -
The title goes right along with the style of the book, and everything described from the first chapter to the last. Jacob's room is the closest we really get to the inside of his head, and hearing the thoughts that bounce around inside his mind. Other novels might say "James became suddenly frightened; the sight of the stranger caused his calm breath to speed into the rythme of the machine next to him. He had no idea what was going on, but he was sure that... blah" The thing is, Jacob's room(s) allow us to see even deeper than this description, which is probably why Woolfe was fond of this style. In a sense, narration is shallow, and typically only penetrates the most prime, high, or instinctual parts of ones senses and thoughts. Getting into Jacob's Room, into his mind, allowed us to basically walk around in his personality and his character, and by hearing about his room, we can explore the mind of the owner.
Jacob's Room the novel is dedicated to Woolfe's unique style, and the room is a great part of her technique, thus it is fitting to name the novel after it. And true, Jacob has but one real room at a time, just as he only has one mind and one self to explore.
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